Merge patch series "Remove patman from the U-Boot tree"

Simon Glass <[email protected]> says:

patman is now maintained as a standalone 'patch-manager' package, so
remove it from the tree. The command becomes a stub that tells people to
run 'pip install patch-manager'.

buildman still imports the shared modules commit and patchstream (along
with their dependencies), so this series leaves those in place. It drops
the tool's code, tests, CI hooks and packaging, and removes the in-tree
documentation, moving the b4 contributor guide alongside the patman note
in the patch-sending docs. It also adds a .patman-defaults file so the external
tool is set up for U-Boot, next to the existing .b4-config. Where the CI
jobs relied on patman's requirements for the setuptools that pylibfdt
needs, they now install scripts/dtc/pylibfdt/requirements.txt instead.

More could be done here: commit and patchstream (and their dependencies
series, get_maintainer and settings) only remain because buildman still
imports them. A follow-up could move those into u_boot_pylib (or
buildman itself) and drop the rest, leaving tools/patman as just the
stub.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/[email protected]

6 files changed, 62 insertions, 55 deletions

diff --git a/doc/develop/codingstyle.rst b/doc/develop/codingstyle.rst
index 26881cf3900..b8d2bf23a54 100644
--- a/doc/develop/codingstyle.rst
+++ b/doc/develop/codingstyle.rst
@@ -24,54 +24,6 @@ The following rules apply:
   <https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/>`_. Use `pylint
   <https://github.com/pylint-dev/pylint>`_ for checking the code.
 
-.. _b4_contrib:
-
-* Use the `b4 <https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/>`__ tool to prepare and
-  send your patches. b4 has become the preferred tool to sending patches for many
-  Linux kernel contributors, and U-Boot ships with a ready-to-use ``.b4-config`` that
-  targets ``[email protected]`` and integrates with ``scripts/get_maintainer.pl`` for
-  recipient discovery.
-
-  Start a topical series with ``b4 prep`` and keep the commits organised with
-  ``git rebase -i``. ``b4 prep --edit-cover`` opens an editor for the cover
-  letter, while ``b4 prep --auto-to-cc`` collects reviewers and maintainers from
-  both the configuration file and ``scripts/get_maintainer.pl``.
-
-  .. code-block:: bash
-
-     b4 prep -n mmc-fixes
-     git rebase -i origin/master
-     b4 prep --edit-cover
-     b4 prep --auto-to-cc
-
-  Run the style checks before sending. ``b4 prep --check`` wraps the existing
-  tooling so you see the output from ``scripts/checkpatch.pl`` alongside b4's
-  own validation. You can always invoke ``scripts/checkpatch.pl`` directly for
-  additional runs.
-
-  .. code-block:: bash
-
-     b4 prep --check
-
-  When the series is ready, use ``b4 send``. Begin with ``--dry-run`` to review
-  the generated emails and ``--reflect`` to copy yourself for records before
-  dispatching to ``[email protected]``.
-
-  .. code-block:: bash
-
-     b4 send --dry-run
-     b4 send --reflect
-     b4 send
-
-  After reviews arrive, collect Acked-by/Tested-by tags with ``b4 trailers -u``
-  and fold them into your commits before resending the updated series.
-
-  .. code-block:: bash
-
-     b4 trailers -u
-     git rebase -i origin/master
-     b4 send
-
 * Run ``scripts/checkpatch.pl`` directly or via ``b4 prep --check`` so that all
   issues are resolved *before* posting on the mailing list. For more information,
   read :doc:`checkpatch`.
diff --git a/doc/develop/driver-model/spi-howto.rst b/doc/develop/driver-model/spi-howto.rst
index 9dc3b9b4aac..65dd50e7d55 100644
--- a/doc/develop/driver-model/spi-howto.rst
+++ b/doc/develop/driver-model/spi-howto.rst
@@ -649,8 +649,8 @@ board.
 Prepare patches and send them to the mailing lists
 --------------------------------------------------
 
-You can use 'tools/patman/patman' to prepare, check and send patches for
-your work. See tools/patman/README for details.
+You can prepare, check and send patches for your work using the tools described
+in :doc:`/develop/sending_patches`.
 
 A little note about SPI uclass features
 ---------------------------------------
diff --git a/doc/develop/index.rst b/doc/develop/index.rst
index 3c044e67927..51fd68fa04b 100644
--- a/doc/develop/index.rst
+++ b/doc/develop/index.rst
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ General
    docstyle
    kconfig
    memory
-   patman
    process
    release_cycle
    security
diff --git a/doc/develop/patman.rst b/doc/develop/patman.rst
deleted file mode 120000
index 0fcb7d61d40..00000000000
--- a/doc/develop/patman.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-../../tools/patman/patman.rst
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/doc/develop/sending_patches.rst b/doc/develop/sending_patches.rst
index e29fa175727..c3e0ef27824 100644
--- a/doc/develop/sending_patches.rst
+++ b/doc/develop/sending_patches.rst
@@ -17,14 +17,71 @@ A good introduction how to prepare for submitting patches can be found in the
 LWN article `How to Get Your Change Into the Linux Kernel
 <http://lwn.net/Articles/139918/>`_ as the same rules apply to U-Boot, too.
 
+.. _b4_contrib:
+
+Using b4
+--------
+
+Use the `b4 <https://b4.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/>`__ tool to prepare and send
+your patches. b4 has become the preferred tool to sending patches for many Linux
+kernel contributors, and U-Boot ships with a ready-to-use ``.b4-config`` that
+targets ``[email protected]`` and integrates with ``scripts/get_maintainer.pl``
+for recipient discovery.
+
+Start a topical series with ``b4 prep`` and keep the commits organised with
+``git rebase -i``. ``b4 prep --edit-cover`` opens an editor for the cover letter,
+while ``b4 prep --auto-to-cc`` collects reviewers and maintainers from both the
+configuration file and ``scripts/get_maintainer.pl``.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   b4 prep -n mmc-fixes
+   git rebase -i origin/master
+   b4 prep --edit-cover
+   b4 prep --auto-to-cc
+
+Run the style checks before sending. ``b4 prep --check`` wraps the existing
+tooling so you see the output from ``scripts/checkpatch.pl`` alongside b4's own
+validation. You can always invoke ``scripts/checkpatch.pl`` directly for
+additional runs.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   b4 prep --check
+
+When the series is ready, use ``b4 send``. Begin with ``--dry-run`` to review the
+generated emails and ``--reflect`` to copy yourself for records before
+dispatching to ``[email protected]``.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   b4 send --dry-run
+   b4 send --reflect
+   b4 send
+
+After reviews arrive, collect Acked-by/Tested-by tags with ``b4 trailers -u`` and
+fold them into your commits before resending the updated series.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   b4 trailers -u
+   git rebase -i origin/master
+   b4 send
+
 Using patman
 ------------
 
 You can use a tool called patman to prepare, check and send patches. It creates
 change logs, cover letters and patch notes. It also simplifies the process of
-sending multiple versions of a series.
+sending multiple versions of a series. patman is driven by tags in your commit
+messages, and can collect Reviewed-by and other tags from patchwork when you
+send a new version. It can optionally keep a local database of all your series,
+tracking each version and their review / applied status over time, so you can
+easily track upstreaming progress.
 
-See more details at :doc:`patman`.
+patman now lives outside the U-Boot tree; install it with
+``pip install patch-manager``. See the
+`patman documentation <https://deinde.dev/patman>`_ for details.
 
 General Patch Submission Rules
 ------------------------------
diff --git a/doc/develop/testing.rst b/doc/develop/testing.rst
index 3a2b496fa00..1d19b49e82c 100644
--- a/doc/develop/testing.rst
+++ b/doc/develop/testing.rst
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ the quick ones, type this::
 
     make qcheck
 
-It is also possible to run just the tests for tools (patman, binman, etc.).
+It is also possible to run just the tests for tools (binman, buildman, etc.).
 Such tests are included with those tools, i.e. no actual U-Boot unit tests are
 run. Type this::